The United States has put Malaysia back on the blacklist of countries trafficking in people after removing the country from the list last year.

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The State Department annual ‘Trafficking in Persons Report 2009’, which examined efforts in more than 173 countries to combat trafficking for forced labour, prostitution, military service and other purposes, has Malaysia sharing the blacklist with 16 countries.

Among the 17 countries on the blacklist are Burma, Zimbabwe, Papua New Guinea, Sudan and Saudi Arabia.

“Malaysia is a destination and, to a lesser extent, a source and transit country for women and children trafficked for the purpose of commercial sexual exploitation, and for men, women, and children trafficked for the purpose of forced labour,” said the report, which was released by the US State Department today.

Malaysia was elevated from the blacklist in 2008 to the ‘Tier 2′ watch list after plunging into the dreaded ‘Tier 3′ two years ago.

The country was first blacklisted in 2001 but its ranking improved to ‘Tier 2′ in subsequent years until 2007.

In that year, it was relegated to ‘Tier 3’ but last year, the report said “significant efforts being made to comply with minimum standards of combating human trafficking” which resulted in Malaysia being removed from the blacklist.

“Malaysia does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so, despite some progress in enforcing the country’s new anti-trafficking law,” said the 2009 report.

It said that while the government took initial actions under the 2007 anti-trafficking law against sex trafficking, it has yet to fully address issues of human trafficking.

Refugees ‘sold’ by immigration officials

The report referred to another report by the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee two months ago which found the involvement of Immigration Department officials in trafficking Burmese refugees.

According to the report, Malaysian immigration officials sold refugees for approximately US$200 (RM700) per person to traffickers operating along Thailand’s southern border.

“In turn, the traffickers demanded ransom – ranging from US$300 (RM1,000) for children to US$575 (RM2,000) for adults – in exchange for their freedom.

“Informed sources estimated 20 percent of the victims were unable to pay the ransom, and were sold for the purpose of labour and commercial sexual exploitation.”

It said that so far little action has been taken since the released of the Senate foreign relations committee report in April.

“The Malaysian police is investigating the allegations with the cooperation of the Immigration Department, as publicly confirmed by the prime minister but no officials were arrested, prosecuted, or convicted for involvement in trafficking during the reporting period,” it lamented.

Migrant workers victimised

The report is also scathing in describing the country’s treatment of migrant labourers.

“Some migrant workers are victimised by their employers, employment agents, or traffickers who supply migrant labourers and victims of sex trafficking.

The report pointed out that the government continue to condone the confiscation of passports by employers, while employers passed the government’s ‘immigration levy’ on to the low-skilled migrant workers, which facilitated debt bondage.

It also said that women from Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, Cambodia, Vietnam, Burma, Mongolia, and China are forced into prostitution after being lured to Malaysia with promises of legitimate employment.

The report concluded that the government had made only “limited efforts” to prevent trafficking in persons over the last year.

“As a regional economic leader approaching developed nation status, Malaysia has the resources and government infrastructure to do more in addressing trafficking in persons,” said the report.

Could face sanctions

Countries on the blacklist could face sanctions, including the withholding by US of non-humanitarian, non-trade related foreign aid.

They would also be subject to withholding of funding for government officials to participate in educational and cultural exchange programmes.

On a bright note, the report named Malaysia’s Alice Nah as one of its nine 2009 ‘heroes’.

Nah, who is from the Migration Working Group, has raised government and public awareness through online articles describing the plight of trafficking victims, refugees, and migrant workers.

“In January 2009, Nah wrote about the trafficking of Burmese refugees along the Malaysia-Thailand border. Her article increased local and international attention to the issue and raised public awareness within Malaysia,” it said.

The United States today added six African countries to a blacklist of countries trafficking in people, and put US trading partner Malaysia back on the list.

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Chad, Eritrea, Niger, Mauritania, Swaziland, and Zimbabwe were added to the list in the annual report, which analysed efforts in 173 countries to fight trafficking in humans for forced labor, prostitution, military service and other reasons.

Staying on the blacklist list are US allies Saudi Arabia and Kuwait but also Cuba, Fiji, Iran, Burma, North Korea, Papua New Guinea, Sudan, and Syria, according to the State Department report for 2009.

Removed from the list were Qatar, Oman, Algeria, and Moldova.

“This is modern slavery, a crime that spans the globe, providing ruthless employers with an endless supply of people to abuse for financial gain,” US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in introducing the report.

The ‘Trafficking in Persons Report’ said “the global economic crisis is also boosting the demand side of human trafficking.”

The 17 countries on the blacklist could face sanctions, including the withholding of non-humanitarian, non-trade related US aid.

The report said Malaysia fails not only to “fully comply” with minimum standards to eliminate trafficking but “is not making significant efforts to do so.”

Last year the report elevated Malaysia to a “watch list” from the 2007 blacklist after finding that it was “making significant efforts” to comply with such standards.

The new report said that while the government took early steps to fight sex trafficking, it has yet to fully tackle labor trafficking in Malaysia.

It also said there were “credible allegations,” including those in a Senate report this year, that some immigration officials took part in trafficking and extorting refugees from Burma.

Zimbabwe joins rogues’ gallery

Like many African and other poor countries, the report said, Zimbabwe “is a source, transit and destination country for men, women and children trafficked for the purposes of forced labor and sexual exploitation.”

Some of the many Zimbabweans who fled to neighbouring countries amid Zimbabwe’s severe economic and political crisis faced “human trafficking,” it said.

It charged that members of Zimbabwe’s military were involved in trafficking.

The government of Niger “demonstrated marginal efforts to combat human trafficking, including traditional slavery, during the last year,” it said.

“The government of Mauritania made inadequate efforts to raise awareness of trafficking during the last year,” it added.

Eritrea showed no progress in prosecuting or punishing traffickers, while Swaziland showed no effort to do the same.

Burma shows some progress

The report said Saudi Arabia and Kuwait admit men and women from Asian and African countries to work as domestic servants or other low-skilled laborers, but then subject many to “involuntary servitude.”

It added that Saudi Arabia made “no discernible efforts” to punish or prosecute traffickers, although Kuwait “demonstrated some progress” in punishing them.

North Korea does not recognise or make any attempt to identify trafficking victims, it said. Nor does it make any effort to prosecute perpetrators.

But another longstanding blacklist member Burma showed some progress to fight cross-border trafficking as well as limited efforts to investigate and prosecute internal trafficking, it said.

Fiji, described as a source country for child laborers and prostitutes, showed no significant efforts to protect victims or prosecute perpetrators, it said.

And Beauty is handy thing to have, esp. for someone who ain’t handsome.

Umno beauty?

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Hot rhetoric and Pakatan-bashing

Syed Jaymal Zahiid | Mar 25, 09 8:24pm

That time of the year, where folks dressed in white baju Melayu, red samping and songkoks congregating at the Tun Hussein Onn Hall in PWTC in their thousands and passionately indulging in verbal trashing of the opposition political parties, has arrived.

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It is the ‘Umno season’, where in each of the 59 years the party has convened its annual general assembly, the tradition is to begin with waves of oral shelling fired from the trenches of the party’s Youth wing.

This year is no exception when delegates of the Youth wing kicked off the debate session with scathing attacks, often with racial overtones, against Pakatan Rakyat leaders.

One delegate from Johor, Rohazam Shah, blasted Pakatan leaders, chiefly PKR leader Anwar Ibrahim, as arrogant after the coalition had taken over five states and denied BN the two-third parliamentary majority in the last general elections.

Anwar was also labelled a traitor to the Malays by Rohazam when he argued that a leader who tries to question Malay special privileges should be described as enemy number one to the race.

“He tried to abolish the Malay rights that is enshrined in the Federal Constitution when he suggested to do away with the New Economic Policy,” said Rohazam and it was followed by thunderous applause from the audience.

For him, no one and certainly not non-Malays, can question the special Malay rights and call for Umno and the Youth wing to fight to the end to defend such privileges.

Pakatan had insulted the MalaysHe also blasted Pakatan for the Perak constitutional crisis and said that the opposition coalition had tested the patience and insulted the Malays when they question the sultan’s decision to appoint Zambry Abdul Kadir as the new menteri besar.

Rohazam’s offensive was then followed by fellow delegate, Mohd Zaidi Mohd Said from Penang, who accused the DAP government of Penang of being racists.

“It is DAP that controls Penang and not Pakatan. There is no such thing as the Pakatan coalition in Penang,” said Zaidi, implying that the state is controlled by the Chinese and not a multi-racial coalition as claimed by the state’s Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng.

“You know what Guan Eng first did when he became chief minister? He had all the posters that you can see in state government buildings changed to Yang Berhormat Tuan Lim Guan Eng,” he added.

Zaidi said the term “tuan” or master in English was only used by the Malays when addressing English governors when Malaysia was colonialised by Britain.

He then said the resignation of Mohd Fairus reflected the inability of PKR to serve and protect the interest of the Malays in the state and called for his resignation not only as Penang’s deputy chief minister, but as the state representative as well.

After he was done with DAP, Zaidi shifted his attacks on PKR by ridiculing Anwar.

He said the Malays should not be fooled by the leader who is “only good at giving promises but not delivering.”

‘Biggest mistake was to free Anwar’

“He can promise you everything, he can even promise you the front and the back,” said Zaidi in an apparent insinuation to Anwar’s sodomy case.

“The biggest mistake we ever did was to free Anwar (from jail),” he added and was accompanied by stomps from the floor.

Kelantan delegate Mohd Affendi Yusof, when taking his turn to debate, said Umno has been very lenient and patient towards Pakatan’s antics.

The primary reasons for this (economic) collapse are corrupt politicians, and fraudulent banking institutions that colluded to put the country into massive DEBT! – Foundingfather1776 on the 2001 economic collapse of Argentina, a country rich in natural resources with a generally well-educated population, has undergone an economic collapse since 2001.

PKR Ipoh Barat division head Fauzi Muda has leveled the damning claim that Umno deputy president Najib Abdul Razak had tried last year to induce him to secure the crossover of two Pakatan Rakyat representatives in Perak.

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Fauzi said he had been offered a total of RM50 million for his services and to pay off those he managed to convince, but that he had remained non-committal.

While conceding that he has no concrete evidence to back his allegation, he nonetheless dared Najib (left) – also the deputy premier and deputy head of ruling coalition Barisan Nasional – to deny the claim.

Reading from a three-page statutory declaration at a press conference in Ipoh this morning, Fauzi said a friend Suleiman Mansor, an ordinary member of Umno, had invited him to Kuala Lumpur on a business matter on March 11, 2008.

This was three days after the momentous general election that dumped BN out of the Perak government, and brought a Pakatan coalition into power, albeit with a slim majority of five seats.

However, Suleiman took Fauzi to meet three men, “including former deputy defence minister Zainal Abidin Zin at the Jalan Duta toll plaza”.

“Thereafter, I was taken to Najib (Abdul) Razak’s residence in Putrajaya, where he tried to persuade me to lobby for the crossover of two PR assemblymen to BN,” said Fauzi.

“I was promised RM50 million in return for my services and told that I would be allowed to allocate (part of) the money (to the asseemblypersons) as I wished.”

Fauzi, however, did not name any representatives in the document or during the press conference. He would not distribute copies of the statutory declaration either.

“Najib assured me that if I succeeded, the appointment of the menteri besar for Perak would be delayed. However, I left his residence without making any promises as I feared for my safety.”

He further claimed that Suleiman approached him once more last year, after PKR assemblypersons Jamaluddin Mat Radzi (Behrang) and Osman Jailu (Changkat Jering) were charged with corrupt practice.

“I was told that if I succeeded in lobbying for their crossover, the charges would be dropped. But this time, the reward for their defection dropped to RM5 million per person. Again, I refused the offer.”
‘Willing to meet Najib’

Fauzi told the media that he intends to lodge a report with the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission today.

Commenting on the now-anticipated crossover by Jamaluddin and Osman, he expressed his suspicion that Umno has succeeded in pulling them out of Pakatan.

When pressed as to why he had not lodged a report earlier, he said that rumours of BN attempting to manoeuvre the defections of Pakatan elected representatives had been rife since the general election.

“I did not believe this would happen until the disappearance of Jamaluddin and Osman (since last week),” he said.

He noted, though, that he had previously brought up the matter with Pakatan leaders including Anwar Ibrahim.

Fauzi, in challenging Najib to refute the allegations, said he is prepared to meet face-to-face with the latter over this.

“As to why (BN) had chosen me to lobby for the defections, perhaps they thought I had close relations with them and that I am easily hooked…but they are wrong. I have my principles,” he said.

“I also hope that what I have done today will benefit the state as well as the nation. They will now know the evil political practices that our PM-in-waiting is capable of.”

During the press conference, held at the PKR Perak headquarters, state party head Osman Abdul Rahman refused to comment on the brouhaha surrounding Jamaluddin and Osman or the legality of their resignation letters.

He would only say that both of them are still incommunicado.

This morning, Perak assembly speaker V Sivakumar officially informed the state election commission chief of the vacancy of the two state seats.Sivakumar had announced on Sunday that the seats became vacant after Jamaluddin and Osman tendered their resignation with immediate effect.

Jamaluddin has, however, challenged the resignation letter, insisting that he has not stepped down and that he remains a state assemblyperson.